It seems that anyone closely watching the Presidential race has to be a bit saddened and bewildered by the Senator from Arizona. It was just eight short years ago that John McCain was the "maverick straight talker" who took on George W. Bush, he chosen by the GOP elite for coronation, and was derailed only by Karl Rove's slime-filled attacks on his patriotism. How is it, we should ask, that McCain turned into the shallow eunuch we see today. McCain toes the right-wing line on every major issue (and 99% of the minor ones) and has positioned himself out in front on most in a clear run to the right and an attempt to woo the party's extremists who have never quite trusted him.
McCain has possibly given himself a better shot at a win in November by coddling up to the far right. He has certainly made fund raising easier by dancing with the same GOP "bundlers" who paved Bush's way to the White House, but will his possible success (though still unlikely) come at the cost of his soul and reputation as a pragmatic dealmaker who can cross the aisle of the Senate to get things done?
One need only look at McCain's list of staggering flips: the War in Iraq, offshore oil drilling, negative campaigning, lobbyist dollars. You get an idea of how Washington's last honest man became just another politician. However, an even more chilling picture of McCain should be painted of McCain for those often hypocritical GOP voters who call themselves "family values" voters.
McCain's divorce is forbidden by most Christian churches; remarriage is considered an act of adultry in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church. McCain admits that it was his own adultry that broke up his first marriage.
McCain is an Episcopalian (self declared as such through his entire Congressional career) who conveniently declared himself to be a Baptist in South Carolina, despite the fact that he has never been baptised.
McCain's voting record has been less than family friendly.
He voted against a bankruptcy bill that would have exempted familes that file for bankruptcy due to catastrophic medical expenses. (S 420, Vote 16, 3/7/01)
He voted against a patient's "bill of rights" in 1998 and 1999 that would have provided some protection to families that have medical claims denied by insurers with little or no cause. (CQ, Senate Vote #73, 4/2/98; Senate Vote #182, 6/22/99)
He voted against expanding the SCHIP to cover more uninsured children, a move that found McCain even in the minority in his own party, though locked hand in hand, yet again, with George W. Bush.
John McCain is a deeply flawed human being. In the past it is that he has been seen as a man who would freely admit to those flaws and show compassion for flaws in others that made him a popular figure. It is obvious that his popularity, compared to 2000, has nosedived now that Americans have seen the real person and had a chance to inspect his record. It is no wonder why he would rather attack his opponent than talk about his own life and record.
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